With Prolapse Feel Urge to Push (Like Pushing a Baby Out)- Anyone Else?

Body: 

My uterus suddenly prolapsed a few weeks ago. It was horrible. I knew the moment it happened, and went running into the bathroom and could see it sticking out. I pushed it back in. I'm waiting for a pessary. Anyway, ever since this happened, I've intermittently felt an urge to bear down and push-- like I felt when I had the overwhelming urge to push my son out when he was being born. I'm afraid I will push out my own uterus completely, because the sensation can be so overwhelming that it is hard to hold back. Of course, this whole thing grosses me out. It's just a sensation I am having. It gets better when I put my feet up after going to the bathroom and manually pushing my uterus back in. Anyone else with this sensation?

Hi POPgurl

Funny you should mention that. Before I started visiting this site my cervix would peek out of my vulva. I could feel it while sitting on the toilet. I had quite an urge to push it right out. I cannot imagine why. Perhaps because my vulva was feeling very full, as if there was a baby's head there? Weird. Anyway, I decided that my mind was playing tricks on me and that pushing it out was a stupid idea. Now, six years and one menopause later my cervix is really high. It hasn't been low for years.

So don't beat up on yourself and feel like a fool. If you have felt that sensation, and I have felt it, maybe to a lesser extent, then other women are bound to have felt it too. Or else we are both weird! But I wouldn't worry about that. Weird is the new normal around here. ;-)

POP is characterised by pressure in the wrong place. Many physiological responses in the body are governed by changes in pressure, which feed back in a loop to the brain, which decides what to do in response. I guess it is a kind of false alarm, a mistaken signal.

If it really bothers you I would do some fire breathing, or get down on hands or elbows and knees and coax your uterus back deep inside your body again, using gravity in reverse. Fixing your epiglottis closed and trying to breathe in will cause a vacuum in your guts and it will suck your uterus back in again. This is the principle of the nauli exercise.

Hopefully a few weeks or months of Wholewoman techniques your cervix will stay deeper inside you and this troublesome symptom will leave you. Hope that reassures you a bit.

Louise

Hey popgirl,
I have had a few women mention this sensation, and physiologically it makes sense to me that it may be a form of what is called the fetal ejection reflex...basically a triggering of nerves that make the body want to expel whatever is making contact with that area of the body, which is helpful for childbirth but not so much for pop!

I don't have so much a pushing sensation, but a real pressure on I think the perineum, or just inside. I have rectocele, often bulging out of the vagina. I am trying to keep in Whole Woman posture, and follow the first part of the DVD workout most days (since February). I'm 55, fit and not overweight.

After a day teaching, partly on my feet and partly seated, I come home feeling really 'draggy and achey' in the lower regions. After a 6 month wait, I have a gynae appointment at the end of June, and am hoping that a pessary may be the answer. Lately, I am finding that having a wee is becoming a real nuisance, except first thing in the morning when the flow is unimpeded. I have to strain slightly to get urine out, and this in turn makes the prolapse bulge further out. A vicious circle?

Can anybody else share their tips/ experiences? I'm not sure if it is linked to the urge to push that POPgurl is experiencing. Resting does ease the situation but I sort of dread thinking that the next number of years my ability to stand comfortably for long periods and use the toilet will get worse.

I guess we all have good days and bad days, but I can't quite work out why the pressure problem has become more onerous lately.

Hi POPgurl,
I've never had a baby and am not At all an experienced member of the site but I just wanted to let you know that I get that feeling too.
All the time really I have this annoying urge to bear down. I can't compare it to pushing a baby out obviously but it is annoying.
I find that when I get the urge it helps me to squeeze up, instead of bearing down. Like doing a kegel. I don't know if this would be recommended but I figure it is less harmful than bearing down :)
Jessie-girl

Jessie-Girl- thanks for that kegel idea. I just tried it and it worked.
Also, thanks to all of the others who have replied to this thread. I keep coming back to check for more messages, and it has boosted my spirits to read all of your thoughtful responses.

Good one, Jessie-girl!

You just joined the Virtual Roll of Honour of Wholewoman (yeah, I just made it up), reserved for those Members who invent new techniques that we can all do to make our lives easier, and make our prolapsed organs listen to us in new, helpful ways. I have a little elephant stamp that I attach to emails when I think somebody has done a really good job with something. Unfortunately I can't put it in a post. :-( But you deserve one!

Louise

Thanks Louise :) I love elephants!

And POP-gurl I'm glad I could help :) I also wanted to add that for me it used to become unbearable like I couldn't resist the urge to bear down and so I would have to do it. But now since I've been doing the kegel thing my body is almost trained into associating that feeling with doing a kegel rather than bearing down. So I guess it has become a habit.
I'm not sure how useful that habit will be if I ever have a baby Hahaha but for now it's useful :)